Bombarded by food insecurity, poor sleep habits, fast food and too much screen time, more American children between the ages of 2 and 4 are being diagnosed with severe obesity, which “is strongly associated with high blood pressure, prediabetes, and early mortality.”
The study highlighted the relationship between food insecurity and obesity by showing how food-insecure families tend to purchase “cheaper foods that tend to be energy-dense” but have “low nutritional value.”
Severe obesity is defined as having a sex-specific body mass index for one’s age greater than or equal to the 95th percentile on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth charts.
While severe obesity declined from 2.1% in 2010 to 1.8% in 2016, severe obesity increased to 2% by 2020.
In their commentary on the research the authors warned that the findings should be of “great concern” to health professionals and policymakers because “there is little understanding about what effectively treats obesity before age 6.”
Even more shocking, they wrote….“It is critical to note that the development of severe obesity this early in life is nearly irreversible.”